Advent to Epiphany: From Text to Sermon

Advent to Epiphany is the first volume in the From Text to Sermon series designed to help pastors and their flocks better understand the rhythm and purpose of the Christian calendar. As Christians, we view time from a different perspective than the rest of the world. We may use the same seconds, minutes, hours, dates, and days, but we view the meaning and purpose of history and the future by considering God’s actions through the children of Abraham and through His only begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth.
Certain events in the Bible, though over two thousand years old, provide the key to discerning the times in which we live. That’s why we remember Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. We read the forerunners of these events in the Hebrew Scriptures and find their meaning through the lens of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit as we attempt to live out an “ancient but present faith” in a society where biblical literacy is increasingly non-existent.
In this book, we begin with Advent, the four Sundays prior to Christmas Day, and conclude with Epiphany, or revelation of who Jesus is for the Gentiles at the close of the Twelve Days of Christmas.
My goal is that the tools provided here will help you as you study, pray, and prepare to preach and teach the Word of God in this season.

Dr. A.D. (Doug) Beacham has been General Superintendent of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church since 2012. Previously he served as Executive Director of both IPHC World
missions ministries and IPHC Discipleship ministries, Georgia Conference Superintendent, pastor of the Franklin Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church, and instructor at Emmanuel College.

From 1977-2001 he served as a chaplain in the United States Army Reserves. He represents the IPHC on numerous interdenominational boards and com- mittees, including the National Association of Evangelicals, Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches of North America, and the Pentecostal World Fellowship.

He and his wife Susan Reed Beacham have been married over fifty years. Their daughter Beth is an attorney in Alexandria, virginia, and their son A.D. Beacham, III is a physician in Oklahoma City. They have two grand- daughters, Caroline and Lib, who live in Oklahoma City.

Beacham is a graduate of Emmanuel College, the University of Georgia, and Union Theological Seminary (now Union Presbyterian Seminary) in Richmond, Virginia.